. >> michaela angela davis is a former editor for "essence," a magazine for black women. today she lectures and writes on race and image. >> the music, the spirit, the food, the way we love and the way black people have soul. >> i think it's an amalgamation of all of it. i think it's skin tone. i think it's experience. i think it's culture. i think it's a mindset. if you claim black that's what you are. >> i think there's this understanding in the particular racialized society, you have to be seen as black so when we walk into a room they know i am black but might question what you are so it has to do with do people see you as black? if people don't see you as black, you're not black. >> danielle says at first glance, very few people see her as black. >> i have always felt like i am a black woman. >> danielle joined the one drop project in 2011, about a decade after the two women met in grad school. danielle's mother is white, and her father is black. he died when she was a teenager. >> i made so many assumptions about danielle. i thought that she was that type of light-s